A Visit with Family
by mariteri
Summary: Harry goes to visit Hermione in the aftermath of what has happened in Los Angeles. Sequel to "A Murder in the Family". Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer—I do not own Harry Potter or the Closer. Nor, sadly, do I make any money from the posting of this fanfiction.**

 **Hello! Here we are with the one-shot I figured out that I had to write to put the period at the end of the sentence that was the emotional turmoil that was in the story "A Murder in the Family". Enjoy!**

 **Please read and review.**

 **…**

 **A Visit with Family**

Hermione was packing up her things when the knock came to her door. Sighing, she tossed the last of her folded things into the suitcase and went to answer the door. Harry was standing there sheepishly, managing to look everywhere but at her.

"What do you want, Harry?" she asked, wondering not for the first time in ages if he would ever come to visit her without any sort of pretense involving Ron.

"I-I came here to apologize," he stammered out.

She studied him a moment before opening the door wider and motioning him into the flat. Harry shuffled in and saw that the place was pretty bare. He looked back over to her the moment he saw the moving boxes filled and taped closed from the look of them.

"You're moving?" he asked her.

She nodded, saying, "My grandparents aren't getting any younger. Neither is my birth father, but until he decides to stop traveling the globe it doesn't matter." Picking up several shipping labels, she began peeling the backing off of one as she asked, "What are you doing here, Harry? I would have thought you'd be back to work."

He shut her front door and joined her in the middle of her sitting room. "I'm sorry, Hermione."

She looked over to him, asking, "About what?"

Swallowing thickly. "About how Ron treated you five years ago." She slammed the label onto the box she had next to her. Oddly enough it was applied straight, but this wasn't due to anything she meant to do.

Smoothing out the label, she said, "There's so many things floating around in my head that I can't even begin to know where to start." She went over to her lounge and sat down. "Ron has had a problem for a long time, Harry. A very long time. What's more is that you should have known as much." He nodded to this, not bothering to make excuses. "A part of me will always hate Ron. He hurt me badly. Even so, you hurt me just as much." His head snapped up and looked over to her. "You gave him a way out when anyone else would have held him up to his responsibilities. You didn't just do this once, but every single time he needed it." She sighed heavily, adding, "You're an enabler, Harry."

"Pardon me for asking, but what is that…"

She rolled her eyes jumping to her feet and started pacing. "What happened to have you change your mind?"

"What do you…" She spun around to face him, her face a hard mask of anger.

"Don't you dare lie to me," she snapped. "You know exactly what I mean."

Letting out a resigned sigh, he admitted to what happened at the police station and Fritz. Worrying her lower lip, she thought it over. She should have seen it coming. Really, she should have the moment she saw Fritz. He had always been furious at Ron and what he did. And then there had been Harry…

Looking over to him, she could see the guilt out in the open as he watched her.

"When everything was going to shit and we were on the run, who ran?"

"Hermione, that's not…"

"It totally is!" she hissed. "Ron ran because he was a scared little boy, who was thinking more with his stomach! I went into everything we did knowing that you didn't have the answers, but I believed in you." Sadness filled her eyes. "Just as I thought you believed in me."

Words were failing him, as he sat there watching her fighting back her tears.

"I-I don't know what I can say about this or why you did it. It's done and Ron's getting the help he's needed for a while now," she said hoarsely. "But don't think for a moment that you don't need help too."

Looking at her now alarmed, he demanded, "What do you mean by that?"

"None of us came out of that war unscathed," Hermione said. "You least of all. You need to find someone you can trust and talk it all out. And it can't be some fan boy or girl either, but a professional healer that will walk you through it properly."

"I don't have any problems!" he insisted. "Everything is fine!"

"Really?" she asked him dryly. "Did you ever tell Ginny about that week you spent as a submissive with Pansy Parkinson topping you when you just started dating her again?"

Harry's eyes went wide. "How…"

"Or about when you were cutting yourself deliberately as you started your training to be an auror?"

Pale he breathed, "How did you find out?"

"Or about how you tried to kill yourself by stepping in front of a train a week after the final battle?"

He was trembling and crying now, as he kept repeating the same question. "How?! How did you find out?!"

She went over and sat across from him on her coffee table, taking his hands she said, "You've never been able to hide anything you feel. You're about as subtle as a hurricane in this regard. That in combination with my own observational skills told me nearly everything you did. Simple investigations told me the rest."

"You don't hate me for-for anything of it?" he asked weakly.

"I took powerful pain potions as a way to cope with things that had nothing to do with physical pain," she said quietly. "I slept with men that treated me like shite and I drank quite a bit as well. I'm no one to judge anyone on how they deal with the aftermath of living in and surviving hell."

He sobbed as he stammered, "It-it was easier!"

"What was?" she asked him, pulling out a clean hankie and handing it over to him.

He looked into her eyes and breathed, "Believing Ron. I just needed something to be what they said and I bought it! I know how he could be. It's hard not to. But it was easier just to forget that he could twist a tale if he wanted to get his own way."

Hermione went over to her purse, pulling out her wallet. She went through the business cards she had there and pulled out one. Going back over, she sat down and handed it to him.

"What is this?" he asked her.

"That's the man I've been going to," she told him. "I only speak to him about once a month now or when I have a bad day."

Looking it over, he said, "He won't go to the press?"

She snorted at that, asking, "Do you really think I would keep going to him if he did?"

Blushing, he admitted, "No."

They were silent for a time before he said, "I trust you."

"That's nice," she replied, not sounding impressed.

"But Hermione…"

"No," she said, cutting him off. "You not believing me was only the tip of that iceberg."

Frowning, he asked, "What are you…"

"You had me arrested," she said, her voice hard. "As a way to get me back together with Ron. I had to accpunt for why this happened to my entire department as to why you would do that. Hell! Kingsley came down to demand I tell him what I had done!"

"I explained to them…"

"That's wonderful," she said dryly. "Then perhaps you can tell me why it's still on my record."

Blinking at her, he asked, "It's on…"

She nodded. "My department head, who if you didn't know never liked me, threatened to fire me because of it. I resigned, which is how I ended up in New York two weeks later."

Harry's face went ruddy.

"And if that was all, it would have been enough," she stated. "You told Molly that Ron and I were getting married, as a way to force my arm. I was then made the bad guy by telling her that wasn't going to happen. I started dating a man, a good man, who dumped me because Ron and you kept threatening him!"

"It was harmless," Harry tried to excuse their behavior.

"Ron slashed the tires on his car. There's nothing harmless about that, Harry." She went silent for a moment. "Need I go on?"

He shook his head no.

"You didn't trust me, you didn't respect me, and you didn't so much as try to ask my end of things." She stood up. "Something like that tells me that it's more than about wanting anything to be 'easier' and you know it." Sighing heavily, she told him, "Please tell Ginny that I'll call her at the usual time. I need to finish packing up."

"Hermione…" She just held up her hands, halting his words.

"I love you. You're my brother. But right now, I need you to leave." She pulled him to his feet and added, "Healing takes time, Harry. And it's not neat, nor is it easy. Get used to that." Her face went a bit hard. "Because let me tell you, life isn't easy. It never has been. With any and all solutions therein are just as messy if not more so than what they're clearing up in the first place." She went over to the front door, opening it. "I need time to deal with my anger."

"But I said I was sorry," he said, as he walked over towards the door.

She couldn't help but to feel something akin to pity for him for his inability to understand why she couldn't accept his apology as simply as he had presented it to her.

Hermione cleared her throat. "Harry, there's something that you need to learn. Something most learn when they're still kids."

"What's that?" he asked weakly.

"There are some things that saying I'm sorry for doesn't make right." She stepped aside with the door even more wide open. "Goodbye, Harry. Please tell Gin that I'll call her."

He barely was able to nod, as he walked out the door. Stopping once he was outside, he asked, "Will you ever…do you think you'll ever speak to me again?"

"One day," she murmured. "One day I will be calmer to be sure." She studied him a moment before saying, "Call Ginny, tell her that you need help, and for once, just for fucking once, get it without caring what people think about you." He looked at her with his green eyes wide. "I love you, Harry. But until you straighten out everything in here…" She reached out and tapped his head lightly. "…you'll never be able to deal with anything that's happened since."

"Are you…" He looked at the business card in his hand. "I guess you are."

Nodding she said, "That I am."

Tears welled up in his eyes. "I thought surviving was enough."

"We all did," she admitted. "Now we need to learn how to live."

He studied her a moment before nodding and walking away without another word. Closing the door, Hermione leaned on the door as she locked it up. She was thinking about having a long cry when her mobile rang. Looking at who was calling, she smiled to herself as she answered it.

"Finally found my mobile number?"

There was silence followed by, "You're a sneaky woman."

Laughing quietly she said, "That I am." Sliding down the door, she sat on the floor. "Heard any good jokes lately?"

"Bad day?" he asked.

"Not bad, but…" She sighed heavily. "Resolutions to issues can be just…" She thought it over and said, "…such a pain in the arse."

"That they can be," he told her. "So why put your number into my cellphone?"

Smiling she said, "It always pays to have a friend on speed dial."

Julio chuckled, saying, "True."

 **The End!**

 **…**

 **And there you have it. The end of our journey. Thank you so much for all of your lovely reviews for the story "A Murder in the Family". Currently I have no plans on making a series with The Closer/Harry Potter, but I never say never. You never know. Muses are a pain in the butt that way. Thanks once again and I hope that you're all doing wonderfully. So until we all meet up again on the Internet road for some more fanfiction adventures, good luck!**


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